Reverse image attachment



March 1961 A. D. GUNDERSON ETAL 2,976,775

REVERSE IMAGE ATTACHMENT Filed May 25, 1959 INVENTORS V D- GU/VDEVPSOIV fl T'TOK E Y United States Patent Wee REVERSE MAGE ATTACHMENT Allen D. Gunderson and Guenter Kuehl, Racine, Wis, assignors to George Ger-ton Machine (30., Racine, WlS-, a corporation of Wisconsin Filed May 25, 1959, Set. No. 815,649

1 Claim. (Cl. 9013.1)

This invention relates to improvements in duplicating machines and more particularly to reverse image attachments to be used with duplicating machines.

The object of the present invention is to provide .a reverse image attachment on a duplicating machine which enables an operator to cut a left or right hand image from a single master or pattern.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an image attachment to be used on a duplicating machine which overcomes the necessity of using one master or pattern to cut a left hand image, and then another different master or pattern to cut a right hand image.

A further object of this invention is to provide a reverse image attachment for cutting a left hand and right hand image from only one master or pattern which is easy to operate, simple, and comparatively inexpensive to manufacture and entirely practical for the purposes intended.

The objects and attendant advantages will become more readily apparent from the detailed description of the invention which follows, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view of the image attachment mounted on a machine tool table.

Figure 2 is a top plan view of the invention of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a sectional view of the invention taken on line 33 of Figure 2.

Figure 4 is an enlarged detail-ed sectional view of the belt clamping mechanism taken on line 4-4 of Figure 3.

Referring to the drawings and more particularly to Figure l, the reverse image attachment shown therein, as designated by the letter A, is mounted on the machine tool table of a duplicating machine of a type manufactured by the assignee herein.

The machine includes the machine tool saddle 11 to which is attached a timing bracket 12 by fastening members 12b. The bracket 12 includes the vertical leg 120 to which the horizontally extending arm 12d is secured by fasteners 12a. A cover 12:: is secured to arm 12d.

The reverse image attachment A includes an image table 13 which has attached to its undersurface thereon, spaced rollers 30 which are arranged to roll along and on two spaced elongated strips 31 and 32, mounted on the image attachment base 14. The strip 32 is fixed in position and held therein by the permanently fixed rollers 30a. The strip 31 is adjustable through the adjustable rollers 30b. The peculiar function of having one strip or gib adjustable is to provide a base for the rollers 30 to travel in a technically perfectly straight path so that there is no deviation on the part of image table 13 from traveling in a straight path. The table 13 is thus reciprocable relative to base 14 under conditions depending upon the locking or unlocking of belt 15.

The reference numeral 35 refers to the timing belt pulleys. These pulleys are merely idler pulleys and are mounted on pins 40 which are anchored to arm 12dsaid pulleys rotating freely on the pins. An endless belt 15 is trained about the pulleys. In operation, the function of the belt relative to the image table 13 is to reverse 2,916,775 Patented Mar. 28, 1961 the direction of the image table 13 relative to base 14 when the belt is locked to the respective clamp members 16 and 21.

In normal duplicating relationship, the image table 13 is locked to the base 14 by a key 37. The base 14 is, in turn, locked to the machine tool table 10, also, by the key 37 and through dowel pin 38.

This normal duplicating operation is carried out when a right hand image is to be cut. In this instance, there is no locking of the belt by clamps 21 and 16 to the image table 13 and base 14 by means of the clamp jaws 16a and 2112, respectively, as discussed hereinafter.

The usual machine tool stops 41 are spaced along the machine tool table for limiting the reciprocating movement of the machine tool table 10 relative to saddle 11 by means of said stops 41 engaging bracket 41a which is secured to the saddle.

At certain times it is desirable to lock the belt 15 relative to the image table 13 and image attachment base 14. This can be done by providing a bracket 16 which is secured to base 14. The mid point 17 of the bottom run 18 of the belt is clamped between bracket 16 and clamp jaw 16a so that the belt 15 is locked or fastened relative to the image base 14. The mid point 20 of the upper run of the belt is clamped between bracket 21 and clamp jaw 21a, thus clamping the belt relative to table 13. Under this condition, movement of the table 10 and base 14 in one direction causes reverse movement of table 13 relative to the base 14. The key 37 is removed when reverse movement conditions are effected.

Mounted above the machine tool table 10 and the reverse image attachment A, are the tracing assembly 22 and the cutting tool 23. The tracing assembly 22 and cutting tool 23 are interconnected (as indicated schematically in Figure l) and spaced apart in the usual arrangement found in duplicating operation and are stationary with respect to the movement of the machine tool table. Thus, when the belt is clamped or locked to the brackets 16 and 21 and when the machine tool table 10 is fed to the left (viewing Figure 1), the clamp bracket 16, which is anchored to the image attachment base 14, moves in the same direction as the machine tool table 10. Thus, accordingly, the bottom run of the belt moves in the direction taken by the machine tool table because of the fact that the bottom of the belt is secured to the machine tool table by the bracket 16. As the upper run of the belt is secured by the clamp bracket 21 to the image table 13, the upper part of the belt moves to the right (viewing Fig. 1) carrying along with it the image table. The extent of the movement of the table 13 relative to base 14 is, of course, governed by the lengths of the upper and lower runs of the belt.

It is believed that the many advantages of a reverse image attachment constructed in accordance with the present invention will be readily understood and although a preferred embodiment of the device is as illustrated and described herein, it is to be understood that changes in the details of construction and in the combination and arrangement of parts may be resorted to which will fall within the scope of the invention claimed.

We claim:

The combination in a duplicating machine having a machine tool table and a saddle, a reverse image assembly, said assembly including an image attachment base and an image table, spaced elongated strips mounted on said image attachment base, permanently fixed rollers and adjustable rollers one of said strips fixed in position and held thereon by said permanently fixed rollers, the other strip adjustable through said adjustable rollers, spaced rollers mounted on the undersurface of said image table and adaptable to roll on said strips, said adjustable strip providing a base for said spaced rollers to travel in a straight path, means to temporarily lock said image table to said image attachment base and means to lock said image attachment base to said machine tool table, a timing bracket, said bracket secured to said saddle, spaced pins, said pins mounted in said bracket, timing pulleys, each p ulley rotatably mounted on one of said pins, an endless belt wound about said pulleys, belt clamps, one of said clamps mounted on said image table, another of said clamps mounted on said image attachment base, said machine tool table, image attachment base and said image table moving in the same direction when clamped together with said belt unclamped, said machine tool table and image attachment base moving in one direction and said image table moving in an opposite direction when said belt is clamped to said image attachment base and said image table and said image table is unlocked from said image attachment base.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Rossbacher Dec. 1, 1942 2,831,405 Sallwey et al Apr. 22, 1958 

